Ohio Cop Reprimanded for Not Writing Enough Traffic Tickets

The Newspaper
by The Newspaper

The Columbus Dispatch reports that Madison Township, Ohio police have issued officer Ken Braden a written reprimanded for failing to write enough traffic tickets. Officer Braden only wrote 85 tickets last year. His most prolific fellow officer wrote 388. And here’s the kicker: Braden’s tied the record for the most criminal arrests. Police Chief Greg Ryan couldn’t give a shit [paraphrasing]. “He gets paid as much as the other officers,” Ryan told the Dispatch. “He should do as much work as the other officers.” According to Chief Ryan, in 2006, his twelve patrol officers wrote 1935 tickets and seized 194 cars (selling 41 of them for profit). And no small part of that “success” is due to Chief Ryan’s 2005 written mandate: “Effective immediately, all uniformed patrol officers are expected, as a minimum level of self-initiated activity, to issue one traffic citation, one traffic warning, and complete five park & walk business checks/residential vacation checks each shift worked,” Ryan’s memorandum stated. The local Fraternal Order of Police union is defending Braden in a complaint against the department. [ click here for the full report from thenewspaper.com]

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  • Landcrusher Landcrusher on Oct 13, 2008

    50merc, I appreciate your skepticism! However, there must be a reasonable amount of arrests to go along with those car seizures. I can assume that the quota is a direct result of a financial incentive, though there is the possibility that there is not one. Texas quickly ended some of our worst speed traps with a law that prevented little towns from keeping money from interstate highway violations. As for the seizures that were not profitable, they could have never been sold. Perhaps they had to be returned because the seizure was unjust, or for some other reason. Also, it is possible that the auction price didn't cover the costs of the process (storage, auctioneer, attourney, clean up, etc.) I will give the reporter a pass on the math until it turns out that the story was misleading because of the math. That's when the problem seems to rear it's head in modern journalism. The reporters are rarely, if ever, punished for being negligent or stupid. Only when they are found to have been misleading for personal gain, is there any sort of response. As for facts, they may get a slap on the wrist, but so long as they can point to a man on the street who thinks that aliens did it, then they can say, "it's believed aliens caused the problem." Like the homeless drunk's opinion needs to be heard? They really need to get off their arses and demand a standard closer to objective truth, not just reporting opinions and accounts. The standard shot not be that a story be indefensible before it is unpublishable.

  • ZoomZoom ZoomZoom on Oct 13, 2008

    That town has a corrupt police chief because it wants a corrupt police chief. The town has the power to remove him, maybe by direct election, or maybe by indirect elecction; I don't know how Ohio chooses its police chiefs. But the big question is will they chosse to correct this madness, or will they be happy to keep going on as they were? And yes, setting a quota is corrupt, because it does not acknowledge the possibility that people might be obeying the law.

  • Seabrjim Seabrjim on Oct 13, 2008

    Did this chief happen to come from New Rome when it was shut down? Just kidding.

  • Ihatetrees Ihatetrees on Oct 13, 2008
    Landcrusher: I will give the reporter a pass on the math until it turns out that the story was misleading because of the math. That’s when the problem seems to rear it’s head in modern journalism. The reporters are rarely, if ever, punished for being negligent or stupid. Not quite. The information age is finally bringing the brutal realities of the (advertising) marketplace to journalism. While a strong press is good for democratic government, the current softball question, info-tainment, unionized, politically left media deserves every layoff and newspaper bankruptcy coming. I don't know what will replace them. And, yes, it is somewhat frightful thinking how the media's current watchdog funciton gets replaced. But this (TTAC) may be part of a grand solution...
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